Answering a Reader Question #933

Anonymous Wrote:

my daughter is 10 years old and has an agent that we have been successful with. But I find myself wanting to solicit modeling jobs for her at some local businesses that advertise to kids. My daughter has an edgy look and I think I know which stores would want to use her. Does anyone know how an agent would react to this?

Hi, Anonymous!

There are a few ways an agency would receive your idea of wanting to work with local businesses:

1) They'd be perfectly fine with it but may require that they be the ones to contact the local businesses to see what the possibility of them hiring your daughter would be, negotiate payment terms, etc. Or may tell you to tell the local businesses to contact the agent to get the ball rolling.

2) They'd be perfectly fine with it and may ask you to contact the local businesses to see what the possibility of them hiring your daughter would be, what kind of budget/payment arrangement they would have, etc. and then report the info back to the agent and they would make the final decision as to whether or not to advise you to pursue it or not bother if they don't feel it would be beneficial to your daughter.

3) They'd be perfectly fine with it and leave it up to you to organize/arrange but may require that they review any paperwork/contract/release forms involved to make sure things are on the up-and-up and would give you the green light or may advise against it if something is not up to par.

4) They may discourage you and advise that you not pursue such opportunities because of [insert their reasoning/logic here] and that would be the end of it.

If you pursue these local opportunities with your agent's blessing and if there is payment involved, the agent might require you to pay them commission, even though you were the one to solicit the booking. Many agencies do this to ensure they still get paid and is a common practice.

Because of that, many people with agency representation solicit/freelance their own modeling work on the side but don't tell their agent so that they can keep all of the money instead of paying commission.

It's a risk since you could get in trouble by the agency if they found out and may not be worth putting your daughter's career in jeopardy with the agency, especially if it's proven to be a positive working relationship so far.

My take on it: I would suggest that you reach out to the local businesses and just inquire about if they use local child models and if so, what methods they typically use to find new faces. Also find out if these are paid assignments or if they provide other perks in exchange (i.e. free merchandise, gift certificates, tearsheets, etc.). Additionally, find out what form her photos would be used--would her images appear on the website, social media profiles, in-store advertisements, etc.?

Once you gather that info, contact your daughter's agent and let them know there are some local businesses that are interested in working with your daughter and ask for their advice about the situation and how to proceed.

The key to fostering a good working relationship with any agency is communication. Listen to their feedback and hopefully they'll be open to these opportunities and support you in marketing your daughter in that direction.

My only concern if you were to pursue this all on your own would be any paperwork involved, such as usage rights, payment terms, etc. Not saying that the businesses would necessarily try to get one over on you but unless you have expertise in dealing with release forms and usage clauses in contracts, you could be signing something that wouldn't end up being in your daughter's best interest, especially when it comes to payment and how long they would use your daughter's images and where they would appear. Having the guidance of an agent in this arena is where they'd be able to use their knowledge to negotiate the best payment and usage terms with the client.

I hope that helps and best of luck!